Usagi Yojimbo #1 question

[Freefall951]

Hello!
I've been trying to get a copy of Usagi Yojimbo #1 (1987), and I have a question/concern.
I have a 2nd copy now I brought off ebay, and a dealer with high feedback assured me its #1st print.

On the inside cover, at the bottom it says July, 1987...at the bottom it says 1st printing: "March 1987".
It doesnt say anything about this book being a 2nd print, but it isnt a book printed in "March", thereforth assuming its a 2nd print.
This is my 2nd book I brought now, trying to get a true 1st print.

Can anyone help clear the question? Thank you! ^^
My e-mail from the seller:

"...But I do want to clear up some misconceptions about whether this is indeed a first printing or not. Why I believe it is a first printing is due to the following reasons.

1) If you look at the back up story in Usagi #1, you will see the story is drawn by Dennis Fujitake. Dennis is a childhood friend of Stan, and both grew up in Hawaii together. Dennis did the back up story for Stan and was sent complimentary copies straight from Fantagraphics. Now, it is possible, that Fantagraphics did a second run and sent Dennis those issues, but I believe that as a contributing artist, they would send him first run prints. If you look at the time difference between the copyright date and printing date...it is only a few months at the most. I seriously doubt Fanatagraphics would go back to a second print run that quickly since the direct market was very much in the infants stages, and sold out figures and reprint in that short of a time would have been difficult to accomplish.

2) Dennis was also sent autographed copies of issues #2 & #3 from Stan himself. If you have copies of those issues, a look on the inside front cover will reveal similar discrepancies in dates. #2 shows a Sept. 1987 date and a first printing date of May 1982. #3 shows a October 1987 date and a first printing date of July 1987. Stan himself sent those copies to Dennis immediately upon publication. Again, it was very uncommon for a small company like Fantagraphics to go back to print that quickly in a short span of time..."

[Dranatha]

I echo your concerns.

I have looked through all 38 issues of Usagi Yojimbo vol1 and find the same notation "first printing month and publication date the month after."

I purchased all these copies hot off the comic book stores shelves. Since at the time I was in the Midwest, I wondered if the first printings just never made to us.

Can someone help clear up this mystery?

Abayo,

Dranatha

[Mayhem]

I checked my copies as I'm 99.9% sure they are all first printings. First 3 are as already described regarding the months. #4 says Nov87 but printed in Aug87. Maybe I will check some more of the others.

The only real quantifier I have here for saying they are first prints? I'm sure I've had an actual second printing of #1 in my hands and it actually says on the inside cover "second printing". That and the fact only a few issues of Usagi actually made it past a first printing to begin with. And I see that the second printing of #1 isn't mentioned in the back page (for ordering back issues) until issue #4 either.

[takematsu]

I'm not sure that this is relevant, as I don't have a copy to look at, but this could stem from the strange discrepancy most comics have suffered between cover date and date of release-- things like reading the "Dec 1978" issue of Action Comics while being crushed under the brutal sun of August. Unfortunately, the explanation for this I have forgotten in the 20 years or so since it was offered.

[Todd Shogun]

I remember when the 2nd printing of UY 1 came out. It actually says "Second Printing" on the back cover (if I remember correctly). I also believe it has different ads in it. Can't be sure since I don't have the book in front of me, but I think the 1st print has an ad for Scott Shaw's Urban Gorilla in it. The 2nd Print does not. I also believe the 2nd print was done on slightly higher quality paper than the 1st print. I remember the pages looked crisper and whiter than the 1st. Also, the orange color on the cover of the 2nd print seemed richer, almost darker and more red than that of the 1st print. I'll confirm when I get home today.

Thing is....in my experience it seemed easier to find copies of the 1st print than the 2nd... Stan, any idea how many 2nd prints FB did? Wasn't the print run on the 1st like 15,000 or something?

I also remember way back when ('87) my comic shop at the time had a UY #2 second print, although it looked exactly like the first print, without any designation of a 2nd print. I basically assumed they were mistaken and probably just got more of the same issue in a couple months down the road. Anyone else remember this?

[Usagisher]

......this could stem from the strange discrepancy most comics have suffered between cover date and date of release-- things like reading the "Dec 1978" issue of Action Comics while being crushed under the brutal sun of August. Unfortunately, the explanation for this I have forgotten in the 20 years or so since it was offered.

IIRC, it's a hangover from the days before the direct market, and it'ssomething like the "cover date" is the date it should be REMOVED from the newsstand, and the comics had colored blocks at the top of the pages so you could riffle through a stack and quickly identify and pull the old ones for return to the distributor.

[Todd Shogun]

Okay, I checked out my copies of UY #1 1st and 2nd prints, and everything previously mentioned is verified. The 2nd print says "Second Printing" on the back cover, lower leftmost corner, in addition to a second printing designation on the inside front cover. Plus the overall quality of the 2nd print is higher than the first (i.e. paper grade, cover color richness, etc). All of the internal ads are basically the same with the exception of the one ad sandwiched between the Usagi story and Dennis Fujitake's story. There is a Scott Shaw ad in the 1st print and I think a Good Girls/Love and Rockets ad in the 2nd print.